00:10:59.040It's a sort of weird difference in language between the two countries.
00:11:02.160But as a lifelong lefty, if we're a liberal lefty, if we might put it that way, did you
00:11:08.520not agree automatically with this way of looking at things that as a white person, you shouldn't be
00:11:12.940doing raps because it's cultural appropriation? Well, it's, that's, that's a good question. Um,
00:11:19.080I, when I, when, you know, obviously my first year at Smith, they were talking about these
00:11:24.000things. They were talking about systemic racism. They're talking about whiteness. And I was on
00:11:29.520board and I thought, you know, I'm not an academic that, you know, they must know if
00:11:36.380there's this thing called systemic racism, even though I'm not really clear on what that means,
00:11:41.200or I can't really see any evidence of that. Like I understand what racist behavior is,
00:11:48.420like observable acts of racism when somebody does something or denies somebody an opportunity
00:11:53.180because of their race. Clearly I know what that is, but the systemic racism, I'm not
00:11:58.640a little fuzzy on what that is. And the college didn't really explain it fully, but I trusted
00:12:03.920them. I thought this is an elite institution. It's an academic institution. They must know.
00:12:09.640And I was on board. And so even when this incident happened, I remember I sent an email
00:12:14.620to somebody. I said, isn't this horrible? You know, this poor student who's just eating while
00:12:20.140black. And so then, but then the incident happened to me with the rap. So where you can't do this
00:12:26.320because you're white. And I was really confused because I thought clearly this counts as racial
00:12:33.140discrimination. And yet it was done so unhesitatingly and, um, without any in memorialized
00:12:41.400in an email and even went up to the Dean of libraries and she said, no, yeah, you can't do
00:12:44.800this. I'm backing this up. And I thought, is this discrimination? I wasn't, I was like,
00:12:54.980I wasn't sure. And then I thought maybe I'm a racist for thinking this is discriminate for
00:12:59.640thinking discrimination against me based on my skin color is discrimination. It was really weird.
00:13:05.920It was like this horrible turmoil in my head. And clearly it would have been such a coup for my
00:13:12.000resume to pull this off in a successful manner in a way that was non-cringeworthy and very
00:13:20.200unsuccessful, effective. And I wasn't able to do that. And I thought, well, should I report this?
00:13:27.560Or, you know, and I ended up withdrawing from a job I was applying for because I just felt so bad about all of it.
00:13:35.340And I didn't and I felt like, you know, I don't want to be in this environment like this feels very weird.
00:13:39.960And I it felt it felt horrible and I felt humiliated, too, because I felt like, gee, am I racist because I thought to do this?
00:13:47.800Like and now everybody knows how racist and like I'm culturally appropriating everything like now the whole campus knows.
00:13:54.200And it was very confusing. And I thought for sure if I filed a complaint that I would never get hired at Smithcott, like I would never get a permanent job there because everybody would know that a white person had filed a complaint.
00:14:08.760And so it was a horrible time for me and I agonized over it and I ended up just leaving the libraries and taking a different position.
00:14:19.100And when I ended up, when more things happened and I ended up going to file a complaint, one of the first things I was asked by the officer who is in charge of compliance with the EEO, which is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in the States.
00:14:36.640it's like this um administrative procedure for ensuring compliance with i believe the civil
00:14:42.440rights act like title six title seven title nine of the civil rights act when i went to her to talk
00:14:47.820about filing complaint one of the first things she asked me was do you believe in white privilege
00:14:52.460so that was um that was kind of like hmm my fears were founded like my my i'm not really supposed
00:15:01.620to be doing this because i'm white and then she made other comments like the civil rights act was
00:15:06.460created to protect traditionally marginalized groups of people and I interpreted that to mean
00:15:10.360not me because I'm white and she said she didn't have experience in this area and I said what do
00:15:14.900you mean and she said well because you're white so there were three those were three very clear
00:15:21.120comments that told me I proceeded with the complaint but it was clear that there was there
00:15:29.120were much different rules for me as a white person. And that's justified by this critical
00:15:36.700theory, which posits that my position, because of my status that gets assigned to me as a white
00:15:43.980person in society, I have too much power to ever truly be discriminated against or suffer
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00:16:21.900and jody i'm listening to this and i'm struggling to get my head around just how ridiculous this
00:16:31.540all sounds but this kind of what was this like this when you started or was it a slow creep
00:16:37.780where you know you know you start with things like you know diversity quotas blah blah blah
00:16:42.820and then it went into avert well you're white therefore x y and z well i think it went into
00:16:49.760hyper drive i think it was already kind of there and then it went to hyper drive after the july
00:16:54.32034th after the incident between the black student the white custodian like the campus went into
00:16:58.980overdrive with all these initiatives and programs and then and when was this jody what what so what
00:17:05.240time and date was it as in what year was it all the rest of it so it was um 2018 oh wow okay like
00:17:13.060from august 2018 and then during the time there until may 2020 we were in this kind of hyper drive
00:17:23.480you know about race and whiteness and white privilege and then i filed my complaint in may
00:17:29.980my final complaint in may 2020 good timing i know right and then as soon as i filed my complaint
00:17:39.420George Floyd was murdered and BLM became very active and we were in the midst of a global
00:17:44.900pandemic under when staff were told you might get furloughed.
00:17:48.820And by the way, when we're making our financial decisions at, you know, one of our priorities
00:17:54.000is our social justice education programs.
00:17:56.480So it was, I mean, talk about hyperdrive.
00:18:01.700It went to hyper, hyper, hyper, like hyper squared that summer.
00:18:06.300So I filed this complaint and then it got worse. I mean, we were getting emails like I got an email from my director, like inviting just to the white people in the department, like I'm inviting all of us white people to meet to talk about how we can support our colleagues of color.
00:18:22.540I got an email, I believe, from the president saying white people are especially responsible for dismantling racism or systemic racism.
00:18:32.360Just more of the white, white, white, whiteness rhetoric.
00:18:36.440And I started becoming a little more assertive or a little more aggressive at that point.
00:18:42.620And I started sending emails and asking for definitions because clearly we were using different dictionaries at this point.
00:18:48.300I, by this point, I well understood that my definition of racism was not consistent with Smith College's definition and nor was my definition of what I think of with equity and include or especially inclusion.
00:19:00.800So I started asking for definitions and I wasn't able to get those.
00:19:04.560Instead, I got like referred to Ibram X.
00:21:07.800And so during this summer, it got worse because the race stuff kept coming at us, even in spite of all this. I mean, I couldn't believe it. It was almost like that was the priority over all of this other mess that was happening, you know, through no fault of Smith that there was a global pandemic.
00:21:30.420But I just couldn't believe that they were still pushing that this was the biggest priority.
00:21:36.500And they issued this document called Toward Racial Justice at Smith, which then had further outlined further initiatives, including something about equity being tied to perform like pay.
00:21:51.760It was like something about pay. We're going to be evaluating pay structures according to registers of identity.
00:21:57.580and I thought well that sounds reasonable yeah I'm from the Soviet Union we tried it and it
00:22:03.600worked out fantastically well you're from where from the Soviet Union that's where I was born
00:22:08.920oh my gosh yeah wow I would love to hear about your experience there yeah uh well do you talk
00:22:18.100about let's just let's just sum it up by saying we tried some something very similar and the results
00:22:23.800were terrific uh so let's just um yeah you know from each according to his ability and to each
00:22:32.400nothing uh that's how that works uh but hey constantine yeah are you tired of all those
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00:24:36.420yeah you know what you know you're handling it very well you know people won't realize this
00:24:43.880But you are in the middle of a news storm right now.
00:24:59.360And probably the time that you spend there, particularly before you decided to start speaking up, you would have felt a bit, you know, discombobulated, not a bit, a lot, discombobulated and sort of out of place.
00:25:11.160And, you know, do I, I imagine that for someone like you, who's, who's had these liberal lefty
00:25:17.340views your whole life, this must've been kind of shattering to your whole identity in some way.
00:25:24.420Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, I did, I felt very alone. I mean, of course there was whispering
00:25:30.260in hallways. I mean, I was not the only one feeling this, um, but nobody ever would talk
00:25:36.160about it and allowed loud in a meeting, I felt very isolated. Um, and I felt you, you feel like
00:25:42.980an orphan, like, like a political orphan really. And there was like a strong pull, um, not before
00:25:52.440I made the video, but after I made the video from conserve really good people on the right. Um,
00:25:58.760Um, and which, but I, and even a lot of people approached me and said, I used to be liberal,
00:26:27.860I, you know, I, and when talking about policy, I very much am a liberal, like financial policy,
00:26:35.480social policies, I'm a liberal. So I'm not going to get pushed out. I'm not going to get pushed
00:26:40.480out of the left. I think this idea truly, this, this ideology needs to be put in its place. And
00:26:48.940I think it's really important in the States, you know, we're so, I imagine there, there's well,
00:26:55.880I think I know there as well. So polarized. And I think that it's almost a luxury to have
00:27:04.020political ideals or to be still having policy debates in the face of authoritarianism.
00:27:13.980When authoritarianism comes to town, no matter what side it comes from, like we know it came
00:27:19.400from the left this time, it doesn't matter what side it came from. It's here now. It's here now.
00:27:25.880And so it's like being able to still say, well, I'm a liberal, I'm on the right. It's almost like that's a luxury of a functioning democracy to be able to have those arguments. We're not even like talking about we're not even talking to each other anymore. We're not. I don't think we are a truly functioning democracy.
00:27:41.900And I don't mean perfectly functioning, but I mean, I'm willing to set aside my strongly
00:27:49.780held viewpoints on certain policy issues and social issues in order to band arms with people
00:27:57.440and walk into this together, because it's going to take a lot of us, I think.
00:28:02.760And so I don't know, I feel like it's important for us to try to, I think it's going to take
00:28:10.140all of us and that's what this that's what authoritarianism does it makes especially people
00:28:15.840on the left like so afraid of being aligned with the right or seen or but guilt by association
00:28:23.700and i get that fear because so many on the left just immediately right like you off so
00:28:29.060very early on after we made the video i went on tucker carlson and i don't know if you know
00:28:33.820tucker carlson i've been on the show it was very helpful to my left-wing credentials
00:28:38.880yes exactly so i mean you're mad the message doesn't change but you're seen with tucker and
00:28:45.120it's like that that stuff really bothers me because i just think it's so it's so shallow
00:28:52.680it feels so shallow to me but it's it's a reality um i know but that's part of how i think this
00:29:00.100authoritarianism works i think it's like keeping us especially on the left i mean there's just so
00:29:07.140much fear people on the right like they they know this has been going on for a long time a lot of
00:29:11.860them are like i i saw this 10 years ago and and or like people like you who've come from uh you know
00:29:18.280communist regimes um really i've had a lot of contact with with people like you constantin who
00:29:26.480are like holy like alarm bells alarm bells alarm bells and um it's really the people on the left
00:29:34.100that, uh, need to, they need to, I don't know, we need to get some moral courage here, folks.
00:29:41.520We really need to, I don't know, it doesn't have to be making a video like I did, but
00:29:47.620we got to do something because this is consuming us and, um, it can, it, it's consumed Smith
00:29:57.420college and it made my life really, really difficult. It's, it's very hard. There's a
00:30:04.720special kind of psychic damage that occurs when you're living in this kind of working in this
00:30:10.600kind of environment in which you're lying to yourself. And because you have to, because if
00:30:15.300you don't, it's, it's like, you have to convince yourself that it's okay. It's like a paramorality.
00:30:20.340um and it it's that that's not only damaging to yourself but it kind of it disables something in
00:30:28.860us it undermines this morality in us that we need to connect with others authentically and i think
00:30:36.340when we're not able to connect with others authentically when we get dehumanized which
00:30:40.560i think is what's happening or we dehumanize others then we're capable of doing very bad
00:30:45.580things to each other that's a very very powerful point because you use that you see the words that
00:30:51.280people use against people you know not only like you but against us and people who think differently
00:30:56.180and it is dehumanizing one thing that I really want to ask is why has the universities and
00:31:03.380particularly the universities in America provided such rich fertile soil for this kind of nonsense
00:31:09.680um i think it's where this i don't know you know there's a lot of theories about that i'm not i'm
00:31:17.600not an academic but i think michelle foucault has something to do with it they keep saying that
00:31:23.820that that's what i've heard um and i even heard somebody said you know it was just a just a kind
00:31:29.720of he developed this whole other moral universe to kind of justify his lifestyle basically which
00:31:36.380is kind of this, uh, I get the sense that it was somewhat hedonistic, uh, lifestyle, like everything's
00:31:43.360relative and, you know, there's no absolutes or no objective truth. And therefore there's no morale
00:31:49.800and real morality. It's everything subjective. Um, which is astonishing. I mean, if that's true
00:31:56.160that somebody, you know, who just simply justifying a lifestyle of like not really having
00:32:03.480any objective morals has now spread rampantly throughout society. But as far as why, you know,
00:32:11.620the colleges, I mean, I don't know, you'd have to ask an academic about that. Like the Marxist,
00:32:17.180cultural Marxism, racist struggle as opposed to class struggle, all that.
00:32:22.600Yeah. Well, we've talked about that plenty on the show, but it's interesting. I didn't know
00:32:26.460anything about Foucault's personal life, but it sort of makes sense now. I'm not cheating on you,
00:32:30.880darling it's just an alternative lifestyle it is right like is this bad is this good we don't know
00:32:37.140we don't know and let's not ask any questions yeah let's just carry on and make dinner please
00:32:41.560she's the third one this month anyway monogamy is a power is is oppressive exactly and and yeah
00:32:48.740i couldn't agree with you more there all of a sudden but um but listen let me ask you this
00:32:54.700because i think this is a question that some of your detractors might be keen to hear and i wanted
00:33:58.520he said something that really struck me about not lying, about telling the truth and about how much
00:34:04.720it hurts when you don't tell the truth, how much damage you cause to yourself. And I thought, I
00:34:08.860think because I was really hurting, I think this was when I was hurting at Smith. And I thought,
00:34:13.200I think that's why I'm hurt. I think it's because I'm lying to myself. Like I'm not.
00:34:20.080And so, yeah, I did watch some Jordan Peterson and I did start seeking out alternative
00:34:26.080viewpoints because that part is, I think that part's critical because remember when I, when
00:34:35.880they say, Oh, you can't do the rap. I was like, is this discrimination? I don't know. Am I racist?
00:34:39.620Like, because you get told, like, if you resist this, these ideas, then, then somehow you're,
00:34:44.840that's your white fragility. And that's, are you seeking to uphold the power structure,
00:34:50.580which is white supremacist? So in other words, it's a form of racism, right? It's, you're doing
00:34:55.000something bad. And so like that little voice that tells you something's wrong, something's wrong.
00:34:59.500You try to like squelch it and that's so damaging. And so I had to validate that myself in some way.
00:35:11.000And I had to find like, know for sure that I'm not crazy and I'm not racist. And so in order to do
00:35:17.160that, I had to kind of get outside the bubble a little bit and seek and go places where, oh my
00:35:23.340god no good liberal supposed to go you know that's what i because i've been in this bubble telling me
00:35:27.100oh my god like you can't that person's white supremacist and i found out wow jordan peterson's
00:35:32.100not a sexist misogynistic person he's actually really good person and really thoughtful and
00:35:40.200like he really thinks about this stuff a lot and he's very concerned and i that's when i started
00:35:47.020When I started getting validated, then I started getting stronger and it still took me a long time to build up the courage.
00:35:56.240And it also took some things happening to me at Smith where they really pushed me over the line and they made it unacceptable so that I had to file a complaint.
00:36:07.400So it was a combination of those things.
00:36:09.080And that's that's what I think we're really missing.
00:36:11.860And I think what Helen Pluckrose is doing with Counterweight is so spot on because she provides a community because I think most people on the left, I'm talking mostly on the left or really anybody who they know something's wrong, but they're not really quite sure what it is because they're like, well, this is good, though.
00:36:32.780This is, you know, I'm anti-racist and, you know, I'm seeking racial justice.
00:38:02.440that's that's the other thing because there's no trust for anyone on the right they need it and
00:38:06.920that's why i made very clear my first liberal my first video that i'm a lifelong liberal because
00:38:11.640i wanted people to know that i am also a liberal if you're watching this and you're liberal and
00:38:16.840this is this is not good and jody doesn't it doesn't it make you upset what's happened to the
00:38:23.920left because i once considered myself to be on the left and you know the the fact like i was a
00:38:29.460school teacher everybody who regularly watches it drinks you know I devoted 12 years of my life to
00:38:34.000working with underprivileged kids that's what I did and the moment you come out and criticize you
00:38:39.660know you're all right and you just think there's something deeply wrong with that political side
00:38:47.560of the argument if this is what we're descending into yeah I know I'm really concerned I think
00:38:53.740there's i think we've been way to cheer up me jesus christ i think there's this dehumanization
00:39:03.100process like i said like where it's just totally okay to be i mean there's no there's such little
00:39:11.220empathy involved because we're not focusing on individual people anymore now we see the danger
00:39:16.440of moving away from the individual and categorizing people by groups because then they don't become
00:39:20.820they kind of lose their humanity. They become like a herd or a mob instead of, instead of a
00:39:26.760person. And then it becomes easy to just be mean and write them off and do things that have real
00:39:32.760material consequences for their life, such as in the, what happened at Smith College on July 31st,
00:39:37.8802018. Uh, it's, it, it really concerns me a lot. Um, and I think it concerns you guys a lot too.
00:39:46.680you're right to be concerned because i know that you speak from personal experience about smith
00:39:51.680college but actually what you're describing is in all probability happening on almost every college
00:39:57.260campus in the united states and to some extent in the united kingdom and in many other parts of the
00:40:03.140west so it's not an isolated incident this is one of the things that would be great for people
00:40:07.240to take away from this conversation this isn't just the thing that happened to you this is
00:40:12.700happening everywhere and at every college there's someone in your former position waiting to speak
00:40:17.880out and you know you talk about people being encouraged and and emboldened by you know
00:40:23.100understanding that they're not alone that's why we were so keen to have you on the show because I
00:40:28.200think this won't end until people like you are given the opportunity to reach an audience and
00:40:35.740the until people like you land on their feet because let's talk about the fact that you've
00:40:40.800resigned uh and you refused their settlement which was requiring you to speak to stay silent
00:40:48.200and not speak about this is that correct um they offered me a settlement yeah i mean
00:40:53.640it's not unusual for a settlement to require a non-disclosure agreement sure and and why
00:41:01.420would that be a sort of admission of culpability on their part to some extent or or not i don't
00:41:08.180know. I don't know the legalities of that. I don't mean legally. I mean, do you think that
00:41:14.960they were just, you were sort of a nuisance or they genuinely recognize that if you continue
00:41:19.400to pursue your complaints, it would lead somewhere? I don't know. It's hard for me to speculate
00:41:25.180because, I mean, any number of things could be happening. Like maybe they suspected I would
00:41:31.960file a claim and they didn't want me to do that. They didn't want, just not because necessarily
00:41:37.060they thought they would lose, but just because they didn't want to have the expense of that,
00:41:40.700or maybe they don't want the publicity anymore. I mean, there's any, no, why didn't you accept
00:41:45.560the settlement? Cause you need money, right? Yeah, that was, that was really hard. Um,
00:41:54.080a number, I talked to a lot of people that week, a number of factors went into my decision making.
00:42:00.600And then it came down to a dream in the end. But I didn't want to be in a position where if somebody else at Smith College, for example, managed to screw up, went through the same process I did, or else something happened to them and they were forced to be public, that I would not be able to speak up and support them, even if I was no longer at the college.
00:42:26.540I did not want to be in that position. Um, so that was one thing. I also,
00:42:33.920I don't see a whole lot of other, um, complaints on the horizon. Um, there's a complaint in Nevada,
00:42:45.720right? The state of Nevada right now, Gabrielle Clark is suing a charter school, her and her son
00:42:50.340for a similar, similar stuff. Um, she's actually black and her son is, is half black, but he has
00:42:56.460blue blonde hair and blue eyes. So, um, he was made to talk about his white privilege, I believe.
00:43:04.080Fuck me. Yeah. Um, so she's suing, she's very brave. She's standing up and she's suing the
00:43:11.780school. And I, I'm just was concerned that if I disappear, I mean, this is how, how they do it.
00:43:19.520I mean, anytime somebody gets up, they, you know, somebody who has very little money like me or
00:43:24.840anybody, you know, any other lower level worker. Um, it's like, I would, you know,
00:43:32.400for not that much, I mean, in my case, well, I don't want to talk too much about the settlement
00:43:39.920negotiations. Um, but if you can't talk about something, then you, you can't do anything about
00:43:49.600it. And even though I would be able to talk about it in general, I just felt like it was
00:43:53.080really important that I be able to continue to speak out about Smith and that I not give up any
00:43:58.700potential legal claims. Um, because I don't see, I had thought, I really thought about this. I
00:44:05.380thought, well, maybe like other people will bring claims and I can just take the settlement and just
00:44:10.120have, be comfortable and be okay. I mean, I was so exhausted by this point, like so incredibly
00:44:16.180exhausted and it would have, it would have been so great. And I thought maybe other people will,
00:44:21.160you know, fight this. And I was like, but what if they don't, you know, like I thought I'm going to
00:44:27.840make this video and all these other people at Smith are going to stand up. Well, no, all the
00:44:32.560people I'd been whispering to in the, in the hallways all disappeared. Like they evaporated.
00:44:37.500And I thought, oh my gosh, they don't want to be associated with me. I thought I'm going to create
00:44:41.380this movement at Smith college. And that didn't happen. And I mean, it happened more on a national
00:44:46.540level, which was great. But I thought, geez, people are like, and I understand it. I was like,
00:44:55.000this, this could be it. I mean, I don't know. I just didn't want to give up
00:45:01.720in the end. And then I had a dream and I woke up and I thought, oh, I understand it's comfort or
00:45:09.080freedom, the freedom to keep discussing this and possibly having no income and huge legal fees
00:45:17.600or comfort, no legal fees and total comfort for a while. And I chose freedom and I made a video
00:45:29.760about that. I really stepped off a cliff because I had no idea. I knew I had some support already
00:45:35.680from the video. And I thought, well, surely people will, will help me fund this. But I didn't know if
00:45:41.180they would. And so I was taking a huge leap of faith and I was, it was kind of very Jordan
00:45:45.760Peterson-esque, like just tell the truth and trust, just do the right thing and trust that
00:45:52.060it will work out. And so that's really what happened. And so far, so good. So far, so good.
00:46:01.200And what advice, Jodi, would you give to people who are in a similar situation to you?
00:46:05.680who are experiencing the same things, who have got their own struggles with this?
00:46:11.220Yeah, I think I say the first thing to do is find at least one other person. And maybe you
00:46:18.420already have one other person. So if you have one other person that you can talk to about this,
00:46:23.060honestly, honestly, and that gets it, and that you can continue to talk to on a regular basis
00:46:29.140to work it out, because you're going to have doubts. They creep back in. You're like,
00:46:33.620well, maybe I am racist or maybe I like, you got to work that stuff out. It takes a while.
00:46:38.680And then if you already have one person, find one other person. And now you have a group.
00:46:43.300Now you have three people and then you need some kind of infrastructure. Um, so like a Facebook
00:46:48.520page or, you know, private one, um, or a discord server, even better. Cause that's more private
00:46:53.340some way to gather more people. And I, I, I've said this before and I realized what I'm,
00:46:59.540And what I'm actually giving the blueprint for is a grassroots movement.
00:47:03.620But I think on a person, so that's more of a broader political thing or a broader
00:48:40.580And every time you listen to a lie and you don't challenge it, a part of you dies. And very quickly,
00:48:47.220if everyone does that, you very quickly end up in a society where everyone is lying to each other
00:48:51.920all the time. And I think I'm sensing that that is really what you came up against your own
00:48:57.440unwillingness to lie repeatedly over and over. Yeah. Some, yeah. Sometimes I think it's,
00:49:04.660there were many times when I thought I was defective. Like there are many, you know,
00:49:08.900my mom was like, I don't understand it. Like nobody else has a problem with it. Just go along
00:49:13.520with it, you know? And I don't know what it is about me that I think maybe it's my artistic
00:49:19.780background or, uh, you know, and I'm an introvert and I don't know, but I do think other people
00:49:26.580feel it. I don't think it's just me. Um, they do feel it. Yeah. I think they feel it. Yeah.
00:49:32.780Yeah. Of course they do. And that's why people watch, you know, they watch our show and they go,
00:49:37.140thank you for keeping me sane this last year, because for many people, it's the only place
00:49:41.500they get to hear a different, a different set of views that are based much more in facts and
00:49:46.340statistics and research and whatever and you can have a sensible conversation about is there racism
00:49:53.080is there structural inequality and and there is some truth to all of these things there is a kernel
00:49:58.720of truth that has now been inflated into a larger thing that has taken on a life of its own and as
00:50:05.840you said it makes it difficult to have actual conversations about the actual issue when you're
00:50:11.740forced to subscribe to these completely false narratives broadway's smash hit the neil diamond
00:50:17.360musical a beautiful noise is coming to toronto the true story of a kid from brooklyn destined
00:50:23.340for something more featuring all the songs you love including america forever in blue jeans and
00:50:28.920sweet caroline like jersey boys and beautiful the next musical mega hit is here the neil diamond
00:50:35.120musical a beautiful noise april 28th through june 7th 2026 the princess of wales theater
00:50:41.620Yes, which then makes it impossible to address the issue, to address the problems when you cannot talk about the problems in an honest manner.
00:50:56.640um part of the problem in talking to each other is that this ideology uh is is that we
00:51:08.020we have certain tools that we use in western society it's called enlightenment values that
00:51:14.840we use to determine what is true you know we have logic reason evidence the scientific method you
00:51:21.740know we have agreed it's kind of implicitly as a society that we're going to use these tools and
00:51:26.580So when we talk to each other, we say, well, I think this and here's why.
00:51:31.380Here's my evidence and here's my argument.
00:51:33.580And the other person says, well, this is what I disagree with you and here's why.
00:51:36.720And then you assess each other's arguments based on the evidence and the logic and the